Can you eat innovatively raw food and still be sustainable?

Gearing up for my "21 Day having it ALL Challenge" meant doing some research on a few things to keep me on track. This of course lead me to researching some new raw recipes. I was amazed to see how much of the raw world went towards supplements, super green exotic powders, even more exotic seeds and also just went nuts with putting the word "raw" infront of everything.

For a layman looking through these exotic recipes, their shopping list would turn out being a mile long just to make a smoothie and they would probably look at their innocent organic honey with mistrust, because it doesn't have the word "raw" infront of it or heaven forbid it wasn't agave nectar. Maybe my philosophy is a bit different, but before I started reading what everyone else thinks eating raw should be, I saw it as eating simply to gain as much energy/ vitality and health, as well as being easy on the environment.

I now live in India, where though you can get almost everything you want, it has it's limitations, maybe if I was in the US still and had started eating raw I may not have come to this same epiphany. I started thinking about how we consume, I'm not a purist of any kind but doesn't eating more responsibly for ourselves also translate to eating more responsibly for our environment. Meaning eat what is grown locally.

Here's what I mean: let's take a product like Matcha. You may have wondered what it is if you saw it on a Starbucks menu for your Green Tea Creme Frappucino Blended Creme ® Frappucino Double Venti whatever. 

All I have to say is.......why?

Healthy & Unhealthy all in one scoop

Matcha is a premium green tea powder from Japan and is unique to only Japan, yes of course other countries grow green tea, but not Matcha...it is UNIQUE to Japan (can't say that enough). So what are we doing to the production of Matcha which has now been pushed into the savvy health concious American/ European/ Global mind? Over taxing it for one, the traditional methods employed farmers now being put into mass production....the matchasource.com website states, 

"Matcha is grown only in Japan, where local farmers cultivate it by traditional methods, from growing to grinding. Matcha Source matcha is farmed by the Yahagi river whose micro-climate and misty fog air make for ideal growing conditions."

Next to it is a photograph of what looks like a large scale plant. The Yahagi river area is 73 miles or 117 km long. Yep, check your Google maps. So this tiny area is now being pushed to it's limit and beyond to produce Matcha for in this example, Starbucks. Though, thankfully Starbucks being the souless life suckers that they are don't use real Matcha. Unfortunately it starts there, our craving for health and longevity has led us to turn on our environment. People are actually outraged that Starbucks doesn't use real Matcha, thank god it doesn't because how on earth would all the Starbucks all over the world be able to get their hands on this precious product that is limited to one country. Yes, I know we could go the GMO way......but stop for a minute and think. We all have an expiry date no matter how much Matcha you drink, it's going to come nothing can stop it. So for our short time here can't we eat, live and play in the world in such a way that nourishes not only us, but the planet?

All these additions, Matcha, Goji Berries, Acai Berries, Maca, Moringa, Spirulina etc are being exhausted, are being misused and are probably at a point where the best quality is exported and only second and third quality versions are available to the locals. That isn't ethical, or socially responsible of us. 

If eating raw is so great for us, then what we have locally is more than enough. Find out more about the herbs and vegetables around you or if you want something not available in your area, find out if there's a way of growing it yourself. It's more than likely that if it hasn't been grown in the area you are from you don't need it. Somehow our ancestors ate healthier and led better lives than we do today, without all these additions to their diet. 

Part of my 21-day raw foods/ yoga challenge is to eat and live as responsibly as possible for my body and for the environment. The raw foods craze is huge in the US and Europe, but has taken little traction here in India. I can see why when looking at some of the recipes, but maybe that can change.

Where we end up – Part Deux

So it’s been 311 days, 15 hours 7 minutes and 24 seconds since I stepped off the plane from the US, and no I wasn’t counting J I can’t believe it’s been that long! Days fly by without one even realizing it.

These past 302 days have been heart breaking, disappointing at times, miserable, shocking, filled with denial, plenty of wtf moments….but also life changing, uplifting, beautiful, filled with bouts of hysterical laughter and soul searching moments. Today I wouldn’t change a thing about it. That difficult journey had to be made for me to realize what I had (a place that I DID call home), what I lost, what and whom I loved, what I have missed out on and finally who I am. Obviously I haven’t turned into Confucius and figured it all out yet, but I feel like I’m on the right path.

No, I still don’t feel like I fit in with my “own” people, but that’s ok. One realization that I came to was that I don’t need to feel like I have to identify with Indians. My relationship with India might just continue to be a complicated one. Though we are getting to know each other and having a good laugh at one another.

I am enjoying discovering my new home, rediscovering my relationship with my parents, meeting new people and navigating the unique specimen that is the Indian man. More importantly change has been reflected in my jewelry, leading me down a more holistic path, focusing on up-cycled and recycled pieces. I wake up each morning thankful that I get to create something new each day, I get to flex my mind muscles, explore my creativity, challenge myself and go out of my comfort zone. I haven’t been this content in a long, long time.

So I’ve re-awakened the blog, to use it to chronicle my travels, discoveries in design and jewelry, evolution of my work, and maybe even documenting the wtf moments, because they are priceless and a plenty.

I will leave you with this, “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life”, yes you guessed it, Confucius.

Where we end up

Continuing that search of identity, the biggest and most difficult change is about to come.
Going back to the country of my birth, India.

My relationship with the place I was born has been a life long struggle, it was never home, and I never identified with it. So how is it that billions of people on the planet all have a place that they can call home, a country that they have allegiance to, a place they feel like they belong. Thoughts and feelings that I have never had.

This journey I look upon with a weary sense of trepidation and exhilaration. Trying very deeply to keep an open mind, and hoping that I fall in love with the country that was slated as mine.